Walmart: Unbeatable Prices?

[kjk1281]

Perhaps, but in a slightly different sense when it comes to Sennheisers.

Search results for Sennheiser - Walmart

 

[krmathis]

Yeah, those prices are probably hard to beat!

 

[tintin47]

Wow. That is $100+ above MSRP. That is really strange.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Huh. I wonder if Wal-Mart has started pushing loss leaders and jacking up prices on everything else.

 

[logwed]

Let me rush out to get a hold of those deals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SweetAdeline]

LOL. Maybe if we do a group buy we can get it down to msrp.

 

[milkweg]

Some products are not good prices at Walmart at all. I bought a box of Raisin Bran there that was almost $2.00 cheaper than other stores and then picked up 1L of milk to go with it. When I looked at my receipt I saw that they charged me almost $1.00 more for the milk than at other stores. You win some, you lose some.

 

[milkweg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tintin47 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Wow. That is $100+ above MSRP. That is really strange.

Some online stores set way overpriced prices on products they don't actually have in stock. Amazon claims my paperback copy of 'Jack The Ripper A to Z' is worth $177.00. The fact is the book has been out of print for years and is unavailable.

 

[catachresis]

We buy all of our Satantic rite supplies at Walmart. Perhaps you've noticed the special section in the back of every store next to the floor mops and discounted English literary classics: the extremely well priced live chickens in those convenient folded-cardboard carrying boxes, the inexpensive but surprisingly durable black chasubles, the sealed plastic buckets of human excrement--from Idaho, not China (buy American!)--and anticoagulants for fresh babies' blood. Of course, we're affected by this economic downturn as much as the next economically-vulnerable cabal of malevolent cultists, but Sam did show a marked affection for the Creed of Unlife. Malebolge sear his liver eternally! Thanks, Sam!

 

[kjk1281]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Huh. I wonder if Wal-Mart has started pushing loss leaders and jacking up prices on everything else.

That's a very interesting theory and I wouldn't be surprised if it was true. However, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that it's just the result of some kind of price input error.

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkweg /img/forum/go_quote.gif Some products are not good prices at Walmart at all.

Very true. The problem is, most people just assume the Walmart has the best prices on everything and don't think twice. Perception is reality.

By the way, I have absolutely nothing against Walmart, though it's not my first choice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by catachresis

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

At least there's free site to store shipping!

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kjk1281 /img/forum/go_quote.gif That's a very interesting theory and I wouldn't be surprised if it was true. However, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that it's just the result of some kind of price input error.

That's not a theory. Loss leaders and pricing are down to a science. A good friend of mine used to work for a price gathering company in Phoenix. I visited there a number of times and toured the data center. You would not believe the amount of time and resources devoted to crunching prices. Large corporations would sign up with the company to monitor prices across all competitors as well as analyze sales from their own stores. The numbers would get filtered out to maximize profits. There's a lot more to it, but you get the idea.

There's a small army of Ph.D.s, IT whizzes and clustered supercomputers crunching the numbers every minute of the day.

Wal-Mart does not make mistakes with prices. Loss leaders get you into the store and everything else is carefully analyzed and placed to get you to buy other items at higher cost to make up the difference.

If you see steeply discounted advertised prices somewhere, you should only buy what's on ad. If the prices are below everything on the Internet, that's a tipoff that anything not on ad is marked up to compensate.

I thought Wal-Mart mostly worked as an overall discounter and earned mostly through high volumes. But maybe they're working the loss leader angle now, too. Interesting.

 

[Zuerst]

i think the decimal is at the wrong place

 

[kjk1281]

Thanks for the explanation Uncle Erik! I too thought that Walmart made most of their money through sales volume. When I have more time, I'll have to do some research to learn more about Walmart's pricing strategies. I wouldn't be surprised every cent in every price set has some sort of significance. Fascinating stuff! I appreciate you're insight!